Letters to the Editor

Why are outdoor classrooms needed?

From Beverly Young,

Mountain Home:

I read in The Baxter Bulletin April 21-22 issu, where superintendent Dr. Lonnie Myers said the board approved a bid of $17,200 for construction of two canopies in the Hackler Intermediate School courtyard for use as outdoor classrooms. Why? I do not understand why a school as new as it is and with all the up-to-date standards the Hackler Intermediate School has to offer the students, needs to have classrooms outdoors in the courtyard. Are there not enough indoor classrooms for students in the Hackler Intermediate School?

If teachers have a hard time keeping students attention and controlling their classrooms indoors, what chance do they have outdoors? What classes will be taught? How will the teaching materials be taken outdoors into the courtyard that will be necessary for the lesson? What other expenses will be required for the outdoor courtyard classroom. Was this $17,200.00 just burning a hole in the budget and just had to be spent?

She is a rescue angel

From William J. Schaefer,

Mountain Home:

There is a wonderful woman living in Baxter County, and I would like to tell you who and why. Last Monday, April 23, my wife and I were returning from shopping and passed two dogs walking very slowly along side the road. These dogs looked like they were on their last legs. They were wobbling and stumbling and, in passing them, my wife said that they looked like they were starving. We were almost there, so we went home and I grabbed a bag of dog food and a gallon of water and went back to see if I could do something for those dogs.

Well, I found them exactly where we last saw them. I pulled off the road and coaxed them to me with the dog food and water. They slowly ate 10 pounds of dog food between them and drank a half-gallon of the water. Then, they laid down in the roadside grass to rest. In seeing these dogs up close, I could not believe that an animal could look like that and still be alive. In all my years, I have never seen the likes of it. Every one of their ribs stuck out. They were covered with fleas and ticks. They had skin lesions. In my opinion, they were dying. Then, along came Teresa, the angel.

She stopped and asked if she could be of help. When she saw the dogs, she went right up to them and cried and hugged them. Then, she called animal rescue from her cell phone to report on the dogs. Animal rescue didn't have a vehicle at their disposal at that time, but could pick the dogs up the following day. Well, to make a long story short, Teresa decided to keep the dogs until she could find a home for them. She called her husband, who came over and picked up the dogs, no questions asked.

The next day, I called Teresa for a status update. She had medicated and fed the animals and was in the process of cooking them eggs, "for the protein," she said. The next day, she had to take them to the vet for further care. He medicated them for the parasites and put them on antibiotics for the blood infections they had sustained. He also said that one of the dogs had been hit by a car and probably would lose some facial skin. He also said that, in his opinion, the dogs had been out on their own without food for at least a month. He kept them overnight for observation.

In talking to Teresa, I found out that she has nine stray dogs in her care at this time. I went to her house and saw that she has a beautiful home and much room and a fenced-in dog run. She cheerfully paid the vet's bill and wouldn't accept any payment on my part. Happy ending right? Not so fast.

Animal rescue contacted Teresa. They found the owners who wanted the dogs back. Even that wouldn't be bad, but the owners had reported the dogs missing on April 18, five days before I found them. How did they get into their miserable condition in five days? When I found them one dog had no collar on, and the other had two collars on with no tags or even buckles, but simply tied on with an overhand knot.

I hope Teresa gets to keep the dogs. She is the best.

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

Email this article

Letters to the Editor

From Beverly Young, Mountain Home: I read in The Baxter Bulletin April 21-22 issu, where superintendent Dr.